Tuesday, April 3, 2012

April Platform Challenge: Day 3

When I started sketching out this challenge, I wanted to make sure I covered all the bases for a beginner near the beginning of the challenge before building up momentum through to the end. So I won't be surprised if most people have already completed today's task. But if you have, you might want to check out the more advanced links I've included below.

For today's task, create a profile on Facebook. Simple as that. If you don't have one, it's as easy as going to http://www.facebook.com/ and signing up. It takes maybe 5 or 10 minutes. If that.

Most readers probably already have a Facebook profile, and that's fine. If you have already created a profile (or are doing so today), I suggest checking out these posts to make sure you're covering the basics in handling your profile:

10 Facebook Tips for Writers. This post includes some essential things writers should consider when completing or fixing up their Facebook profiles and Facebook usage.

6 Tips for Writers to Own the New Facebook Timelines. Around the end of 2011, many of the Facebook profiles were changing over to this new timeline design. It's probably the de facto design for new users now, but here are some tips on handling this transition. If you haven't switched over yet, now may be the time to go for it.

Here are the most important things to keep in mind:

Use your real name. Whatever you use as your byline and however you wish people to think of you, that's the name you need to use for your profile. I don't refer to myself as Robby Brewer on Facebook; instead, I use my byline: Robert Lee Brewer.

Complete your profile completely. Even if you don't have a lot to say, complete your about me section. Include ways for people to contact you via e-mail. Include education and work history.

Use your account regularly. A dead account isn't going to help you much. So make an effort to get on once every day or so and share a quote or like a status update of a friend or just do anything. You don't need to do a lot--just let the Facebook world know you're still alive.

I'll probably repeat this several times during the month, but your online platform should try to achieve two things: one, make you easy to find; and two, make you easy to contact.

Of course, it'll also help to make you worth contacting as well, but we'll get to that throughout the month.

This webinar, led by e-media guru Jane Friedman (who was just named the new Web Editor of Virginia Quarterly Review), shares 5 simple web design services to help writers create codeless websites in an hour or less, absolute must-haves for every author site, how to integrate social media sharing tools on your site, and more.

164 comments:

All done. A good alternate step for writers who have a FB profile is creating a Facebook fan page for your 'writer' status. It's a bit more complicated but the perks of streamlining your writing in one place and not spamming your FB fans made it worth the switch for me.

So this "fan page", it is connected to your regular page? It is more for professional purposes? What does a "fan" see when they log on as opposed to what a "friend" sees? And these are different people?

My fb page is very limited to a handful of close friends/family. I think I need this fan page. Please instruct.

I'm going right after this question to see if mine needs tweaking (probably), but first I wanted to ask you your thoughts on a FB page vs a FB fan page. I recently read something about how to switch over to a fan page, and I shared the link with my sister (an actress). When she made the switch, she lost all her friends and had to start from scratch, so it can be risky. What are the benefits? Do we NEED to have fan pages or is just the basic FB page OK for us measley not-famous-people?

I'm wondering about how much of our personal information is safe to share on facebook. I keep my facebook page with all of the privacy settings - so none of my posts are public, nor can they view my information. It's just really not safe to share that sort of stuff with the public. So, my question is: How do you protect yourself?

When BRW Publishers suggested using social media to promote my book I signed up for Facebook, LinkedIn and started my blog. It may sound capitalistic to some, but I joined here for the same reason. However, (and I usually have at least one) this site gives me good information for improvement.

I also had my Creative Muse, Nikita Cat (With my name in parenthesis) with his own profile.

Considering how littel interaction he has gotten, and in light of this new Challenge, I've decided it was best to delete his account, and use MY account to continue promoting, and networking, on behalf of my Cat Blog.

Downloading his FB info allows me to have his friend, and interests, info handy for reconnecting thru my account.

A couple of years aco i tried having a Page on Facebook for the Cat Blog, but my lack of experience with such a thing made it a failure.

I may eventually try again.

I like the links included in Day 3, and see what I can learn to help me better use FB.

I'd like to add that I do have 2 FB pages. One is with my "real" name, and it is private. I use that one to update family pics and events. Then I have my public one, under Anne Kimball, which is the name I write under. That one has about 10x the number of "friends" as my private one, and I link every blog post to it.

For the moment I only have a traditional Facebook page, though I'm interested to learn more about this fan page gismo. It's as locked down as I can get it, though none of the information in my profile is especially sensitive. On the one hand, if you want to read more, you can Friend me. On the other hand, I agree about not allowing every Tom, Dick, and Mary through the gates, so if we should become Facebook buddies, drop me a quick note to let me know you're from the blog. I'll do the same!

Okay, I already have a Facebook "writer" account, which was sort of an accident (long story). I do have a problem though. It uses my full hyphenated name and I use "Linda Hatton" in real life. Facebook won't let me change it. So the question is do I start over with a fresh page using only Linda Hatton -- or keep it as is? I will check back in here tonight.

I guess I have to drop out of the challenge because I had a facebook account and had not one but two email accounts hacked, lost all of my address book and the files of saved emails which resulted in my losing about half of the writing I had done in the previous ten years.

Needless to say, I have no intention of ever creating another facebook account. This won't stop me from reading the other platform tips but I won't be able to say I successfully completed it.

Amazing! One of my short term goals for yesterday's challenge was to optimize my Facebook activity.

How do you find FB groups of interest?

Interesting note: of the four books about FB that "Not Bob" recommended, three have Amazon announcements that new editions are about to be published. Speaks to the problem of how frequently FB changes.

Think of your Facebook fan page as your writing presence on FB vs. your personal profile. You can share all the game apps, pics of your family, etc. you want with your friends but you might not want to do so with your editor, publisher or reader base.

Some blogs (like Wordpress) now offer plug-ins that automatically publish an update to Facebook when you write a new post, a nice perk and a time-saver.

Is it essential to have a Facebook fan page if you're not an uber-bestselling author like Stephen King? Probably not. It might be worth considering if you are willing to dedicate the time to one more social media venue to strengthen your personal 'brand' for your writing platform.

I haven't heard of the fan page thing before, will have to look in to it.

I have a personal page already, but am thinking of making one for my blog. Another blogger I know did this and she would ask people to "Like" the page in order to enter her contests/giveaways. Seems like a good way to get more visibility.

Done ... Although, again, not in the way I expected! I sat there thinking about whether or not I wanted just to update my profile, and realized I have *way* too much going on there ... So I created a Fan Page strictly for writer-stuff. I figured it'll be a nice way to "ease" more into the writerly-self--focusing status updates on blog posts, links to interesting writing-based articles, quotes, updates related to poeming, etc.

Here's the link to the "fan" page: https://www.facebook.com/KharaHouse

Running-girl said...I signed up to follow your blog via the e-mail but for some reason I am not getting your posts. I have to go directly to your site for my platform challenge.

Anyway, I have a FB set-up already. I use FB for personal use to catch up with old friends and family. My question is, do I continue to include acquaintances such as fellow authors and potential readers to my personal FB site? My name is the same so it's not like I can use a FB with a different name. Will you be going over "fan" page in the future challenge? Wondering if that is a possibility to separate personal from business. But I don't have a book published yet to have that many fans.

I've already got a Facebook page under my April Galloway ID. Recently, I've been cleaning it up to look more professional. For this exercise, I reactivated an old page under my Melody Pearson ID and updated it with the new timeline. I did this mainly to connect it to my blog and was very disappointed to find that Facebook no longer allows the import feature.

Indeed it is frustrating when there's no sign of life from an author I want to contact, befriend, follow. Is it quite irony that they're available on online literary journals but have no social media profile to connect with?

How many web sites have you simply clicked off of simply because it lacked adequate contact info?

Today's challenge marked a good occasion to update some info on my professional Facebook profile. That profiles uses the byline as you suggest, my real name. It's my personal profile that, conversely, uses a pseudonym. The two remain very segregated. Even the two halves of my personality don't follow each other.

Done and done :)http://www.facebook.com/melanie.marttilaWe're "friends," I'm happy to say, and I've been implementing your tips since I started thinking seriously about platform back in November.Cheers!

I was going to post first thing this morning and say "done!" -- then I decided to take a look at my information on both my personal FB and my writer FB, with the result that I have tweaked both.

For those who have been wondering about a personal FB and a writer FB "fan" page, I think it's important to have both. I want to have a writer/professional presence on Facebook even though I'm pre-published, and I don't want to share everything on my personal page with everyone.

To deal with the name thing, I just added "writes" to the end of my name for my writer page.

Done. I have always been weirded out about signing up a Facebook account. For one, because everyone has one and I'm not a type to usually follow the trends and two it was my own little rebellion. But deep down I knew I had to get one because for one, everyone has one and it has really good networking and connecting with other writers, agents, etc. I now have a Facebook and will updated and continue to work on my page periodically. Until tomorrow.

I have both a personal Facebook page page and a page for my blog. However, I constantly am looking for ways to improve them both - especially my personal cover pictures. But I think I am off to a good start for my FB page for my blog: Bends In The Road.

I thought long and hard about this one. I already have an account that I use all the time for personal stuff. I could start a fan page, but no one is going to be looking for it. I also wouldn't have any intention of updating it with anything. Maybe once I'm published a fan page makes sense, but right now it's just one more social media outlet I don't have time for.

This is not done, but it will be before this challenge ends. I don't have a FB page, but I will join this century and get one! I need 2 things: a good picture, which is on the horizon, and instructions on how to open a FB page linked through my blog. Do I sign up for a personal page with the name of my blog on it? Or if it is one of the other categories, which one is it? I know I'm not a band! Any help would be much appreciated!

I actually have two FB pages - one is personal, and the other is a Fan page. However, I'm having problems loading links to my blog to my FB pages - not sure why, and maybe over the upcoming three day "vacation" I'll be able to figure it out! ;)

I already had a FB page, of course. I set one up originally because it was the only way I could stay in touch with my adult kids and it has been fabulous for that purpose. I also use it to advertise my blog and it works fairly well for that, too. However, what I learned today is that I have been keeping my FB too private. I limit my number of friends to only those people I know very well and was putting nothing identifying up on the public access page. I changed all that today - adding my email address, some pics and other stuff to the page that strangers can view. My goal over the next coming month is to invite some more people onto my FB - perhaps people I don't know all that well.

Done. I went over to the timeline. Just needed the nudge. I also added some personal information. (Not too personal!) I'm not totally satisfied with the way it looks, but I can tweak it when I feel like it.

Day 3 done. I have a facebook page and a page for my website, but they both needed work. Hopefully I've improved them. I've been participating on my personal FB page more, but my website page is dying. I need to focus more on that and maybe work on getting more likes. Thanks for the kick in the hard drive.

But I despise Facebook. Mine updates regularly through my Twitter account cross-posting there, but I don't actually go there often. If someone messages me there I get an email to tell me so I pop over and deal with that, but for all practical purposes my Facebook account is a bit of a sock puppet.

Wow, at 100 comments (101 after this one!), I'm not sure if you'll have time to address this, but ... here goes:

I've had my FB profile since 2004. Life has changed a LOT since then. I wasn't a writer then (or a public one, anyway), and some of my posts are less than savory for public consumption. I still like using FB as a personal way to interact with my friends. How do you suggest one proceed? Create a new, pretty profile for using professionally? Cleaning up the old one and making it public? Or creating a fan page, either for oneself or one's blog?

Done, but just now posting to comment. I've had a separate fb account for my writing for a year or so, in order to connect with writing separately from sharing private info (about kids, etc.). Does anyone else do that? Security-wise, I'm glad I did that... but it's been slower getting the writing fb going - feels less personal or something (a separation I *haven't* felt in having a professional twitter account, oddly). I'm enjoying everyone's comments, and do welcome fb connections.

I've been on Facebook for quite a few years now. In addition to being a great way to stay in touch with far-flung friends, it is my go-to place for events. Of course, it's also perfect for letting my friends know about my upcoming author events. Here is the page for my most recent book:www.facebook.com/InnocentMemoir

Yup done - updated my profile a bit, too. And posted some meaningless drivel. Perhaps that will inspire me that Facebook is not the debbil. Though I do hate Facebook. I much love Twitter, and the Google+ (less crap, fewer games).

Day 3 - I already am on Facebook, but I went there and tried to link my Goodreads blog to it. I don't think it worked. However, I did discover 4 friend requests and about 100 friend suggestions, so I went through all of them. Didn't accept any whose name I didn't recognize. Did accept my nephew. I'd tried to find him a couple of months ago and decided he didn't have a Facebook account, so I'm really pleased that he has one now.

Done. I've had a Facebook page for a long time, but like so many other folks commenting here, I have questions about the fan page. I hope you'll address that more, Robert. I'm enjoying the challenge so far, just running behind in getting things done!

Done. I have a personal FB page which is limited to friends and family so I can post photos, etc. I also have a FB fan page for my work, but I don't have many followers. People who like my writing often want to "friend" my personal page instead of my fan page and when I suggest that they "like" the fan page, I never hear from them again. Is there a good way to deal with this issue?

I have a Facebook account and use it often, but as a public high school teacher, our district has "required" us to use the "friends" security so students don't have free access to our posts.My Facebook page, if I am linking this correctly, is www.facebook.com/public/Rebecca-KojetinJust saw Lauren Miller's post on a "fan" page and might have to look into that.

Rechecking challenges to make sure I signed in for each. Don't find myself on #3. So-o-o, like Mary Bauer said...This one was already done. I have a personal page and a writing page (MaryPf). I'll add the Pf to my signature to help keep the Marys straight; I count 3 in the comments.

So I already have a FB account but how essential is it to use FB for "professional purposes"? I have a blog that is linked to my Twitter account which is how I prefer to keep in touch with my writer/creative friends. My FB page is mainly used for wacky stuff from my family and old college friends and I would like to keep it that way.

Otherwise I am loving these challenges. Thanks so much for doing something like this.